ELLWANGEN (dpa-AFX) – The battery manufacturer Varta is reducing its annual targets due to the gloomier economic outlook and high raw material, energy and transport costs. Sales should now reach 880 to 920 million euros in 2022 instead of the previously expected 950 million to 1 billion, the company announced on Saturday. The adjusted operating result (Ebitda) should be between 200 and 225 million euros. So far, 260 to 280 million euros have been targeted. Customer projects were delayed, it said.
At the start of the year, the company had to contend with weak demand for lithium-ion button cells, which are otherwise so fast-growing. Because, among other things, the customers were missing parts to complete wireless headphones, for example, things also got stuck in the once booming main business of the Ellwangen-based company. The demand for household batteries, which was still good at the time, and the growth in energy storage could not offset this.
The pressure on business seems to have lasted lately. This means that the company can only pass on higher costs to customers with a delay. In the first half of the year, based on preliminary figures, sales fell by a good 5 percent to 376.8 million euros and the adjusted operating result collapsed by almost 40 percent to 68.9 million euros. The company thus fell short of its own targets. The final results are to follow on August 11./mis
